Paul Klee: Drawing the Line

Paul Klee (1879–1940) wrote that the process of giving form not only determines how a work will turn out, it is more important than the end result. He was referring to the paramount role played by materials and technique. And indeed, Klee sought to fully explore the possibilities offered by different techniques, as well as different styles – from expressionism to cubism, from surrealism to abstraction.

Through works in oil, watercolor, and gouache, this display highlights Klee’s attention to lines and their power to tell a basic, immediate story. It is as though the line enables adult artists to become children once more.

Klee first planned to be a musician, but at the age of twenty he began to study art. He became one of the main instructors at the Bauhaus – a school with a revolutionary, all-encompassing approach to studying art, design, and architecture. He committed his theories and aesthetic principles to writing, including his dictum that “art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”

All the works in this intimate display are from the collection of the Israel Museum.